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that specific brand of vampire media that’s like “you’re a late 90s-early 00s vampire in a leather jacket and sunglasses in some sleazy underground goth club that’s playing electro industrial/aggrotech/goth rock music” ruined me on all other vamp media, I too want to be a vampire in a leather jacket & sunglasses in some sleazy underground goth club that’s playing electro industrial/aggrotech/goth rock music

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actually we should start headcanoning female characters as being terrible with children

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(commission) barbie x the ring

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Art noveau bat chandelier. Austria, 1900.

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Wait... THAT'S the context of the reality storm? I always assumed the storm was the *result* of Morpheus dying and the funeral, with World's End being sorta simultaneous with The Kindly Ones/The Wake but from more of the mortal point of view. If this is the case it certainly does add a LOT of different context to Morpheus's decision to kill himself. Do you have any specific panels etc that imply this?

I think leaving the events of "World's End", wherein a reality storm occurs, out of the TV adaptation really messed up some of Morpheus' reasoning for choosing death.

In the issue I'm talking about it's implied that when Daniel and Morpheus exist at the same time they begin warping reality, to the point that it threatens the Waking World, because they both cannot be Dream of the Endless at the same time.

That means in order not to damage the fabric of reality one of them has to go.

So in the comics, when Morpheus chooses death he doesn't only save the Dreaming he also saves Daniel's life. He allows him to live in his stead. He couldn't save his own son but he can save Lyta's son, even while she seeks to destroy him.

Small but very important detail.

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honestly i think im good without that thanks

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Went to a "Craft Supply Resale Sale" (i.e. a garage sale for craft stuff) yesterday morning and came home with him. For $2, I could not resist.

@shiftythrifting

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The upshot of people demanding others put their age in their bio is. Frustrating. And annoying. "What if you're a minor" what if I'm old enough that I was raised not to put my goddamn personal information on the internet. What if that.

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I do NOT understand Tumblr communities... it's a version of Tumblr where I can't reblog or like things? What's the point then????

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"Bootstraps individualism" is a GREAT way to put it! That really is a core flaw with both the characters' attitudes and the stance that the text as a whole seems to take.

If you haven't already, I hope you read the rest of my essay series that this was a part of. It's comics-only and was written pre-Gaiman-allegations, so it's a bit out of date in that respect, but I think it still has a lot of valid points about the very insensitive way the text handles mental health.

Part 1: Tragic, but not a Tragedy… Unless you get weird about mental health

Note: this is a part of my essay "The Awkward Meta-Tragedy of The Sandman", see [here] for the masterpost of all links, reading order, and content warnings.

The ending certainly is tragic, in the sense that it is sad—for the reader, at least.  But, it seems to be sad, perhaps, only for the reader, seeing the protagonist they’ve followed thus far die and get buried.  Full funeral and all—no obvious “never found the body” ways around it.  In-story, the ending leaves the book’s world a better place, with all the villains taken care of and the Dreaming now ruled by somebody with a much more level-headed nature.  (Which, yeah, that’s a loaded sentence there—I’ll expand upon that in a later part of this essay.)

It’s no secret that, for being a cosmic force and the protagonist of the tale, Morpheus is a very, VERY flawed being.  He’s prideful, stubborn, doesn’t listen to others, doesn’t listen to his own advice, communicates poorly, and never reaches out for help when he needs it.  He also, especially after the death of his son Orpheus (and immediately prior to that, being dumped by his latest failed romance), seems to be not only aware of his flaws, but also in the throes of extremely deep, self-destructive depression.  Honestly, that much-memed panel of him sinking into his chair gutted me upon first read.  You could feel how much Orpheus’ final death, and having to be the one to grant it, weighed upon him.

Morpheus routinely denies himself the opportunity to reach out or seek help, because he also firmly believes that he should be tied to his job as the dream-king, ignoring his own more “human” wants and needs, and that he should be able to do this because he’s an Endless, not a human or even a god (who are apparently a level closer to humans than the Endless are in the story’s cosmology).  That self-denial and inability to reach out, perhaps, if this were a traditional tragedy, might have proved his “fatal flaw”.  If he had died as a result of that, the ending would make sense as a tragedy, in the literary sense.

                But Morpheus commits suicide.

Or, at least, that seems to be the most common interpretation, from what I can tell.  It certainly was mine upon first read.  TvTropes says it.  Other characters in the story—ranging from the unfortunate elf girl Nuala to Death herself—even seem to assume that’s the case.

                Not only does he commit suicide, but he does so through what, in a twist that apparently spans the entire comic’s run, was an elaborate series of perfectly orchestrated events dating back to the very first volume.  He’s aware of his flaws, but apparently despairs at ever changing.  Gaiman himself states that the theme of the series is “change or die”, after all.  Morpheus knows he’s the problem, and he decides to solve it by taking himself out of the equation.  Everything all stacks into place where he knows he will provoke the Kindly Ones to kill him, and sure enough they do.  He does not die as the result of some accident resulting from fatal flaws, as tragedy demands.  He makes a suicide plan, and succeeds.  Tragic protagonists don’t die in the way they INTEND to die.  Morpheus doesn’t die from his fatal flaw…unless his fatal flaw is his untreated depression that drives him to suicide.

                Which is, for lack of better terms, uncomfortable!  I know we’ve come a long way in mental health awareness since the 1980s-early 2000s when the books were planned and written, so perhaps I’m being unfair to the source material by looking at it from a 2020s perspective.  But, that does not change the implications as written.  If we are supposed to see The Sandman as a tragedy in the literary sense, where the protagonist is brought to his doom by accident of his fatal flaws, then interpreting Morpheus’ death as a successful suicide plan means that his fatal flaw was his mental illness and inability to seek treatment.  Which seems… rather cold, honestly.

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If I can't relate to it I just imagine a fictional character it does relate to...

“I don’t like this song because I can’t relate to it” skill issue. I’m mad at my husband I love my girlfriend I’m a lone cowboy I’m growing old I’m growing up I’m depressed I love my friends I’m perpetually horny I’m drunk at the club I love my husband again

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Your random reminder that Neil Gaiman's actions should not be pushed under the carpet. The allegations are still here. The victims are still here. He doesn't get to get away with this.

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Also, DREAM OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW that being "gifted" as a lover to another person doesn't go well! That's what the whole Alianora situation was about! It still happened in the show, too! (Her statue is on the gates of the Dreaming). He knows those relationships fail, even HE felt hurt by the situation even though she was the one given as a gift. That was part of his discomfort with Nuala being given to him! It's part of comic-Dream's consistent anti-slavery stance! This is just such an incredibly gross failure of writing on so many levels.

I've seen people theorising off of the "Maybe Dream put us together for a reason" line as like, that Dream made the second Corinthian for Joanna... and that is so fucking horrifying to me. The idea that he would make a dream for ANYONE'S romantic interests is bizarre and out of character to begin with but like. Doing it to this particular nightmare is um. It's weird. It's. I...

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"This fic is literally just porn, why do you care about the quality of the editing" unfortunately, both my brain and my dick have strong opinions about verb tenses.

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People on twitter have been saying this website is extremely white and tbh its making me very curious what the demographics of this site are (of my own reach anyway) so

DISCLAIMER: Race is a non scientific concept with no exact definitions. It is a social construct primarily characterized by how society treats you and thus this is an imperfect poll. If you feel none of the options here reflect you and your experience I implore you to reblog this with your experience as I am curious about that and want to hear about it.

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junji itō was so right when he said this